Reid calls torture commission 'unwise'

From NBC's Ken StricklandSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid today said it would be "very unwise" to have an independent commission to investigate the CIA's interrogations procedures without having Congress conduct its own inquiry first. Reid says he'll follow the lead of Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein, who told Reid a public report could be finished "sometime late this year."

"I think it would be very unwise, from my perspective, to start having commissions, boards, and tribunals until we find out what the facts are," Reid told reporters in an off-camera session. "I don't know a better way of getting the facts than through the Intelligence Committee."

Other Democrats and outside groups have called for the formation of a 9/11-type independent commission, chief among them Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

But the Senate majority leader dismissed the claims of division within his caucus. "I'm not opposed to what Sen. Leahy has talked about, what Sen. Levin has talked about, and what some of the outside groups have talked about, Reid said. "But we have to get the facts before we decide which direction to go."

The Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, echoed Reid's position, citing the vast amount of information under review. "Some of it has been destroyed... Some of it has been concealed, and some of it is just coming to light now because we have a Senate Intelligence Committee that is aggressively going after this issue."